In our web accessibility seminar, in order to see how differnet types of users, for example blind users, users just using a keyboard or users using different web browsers we have downloaded the text only web browser 'lynx'.
This web browser is still used even though graphical browsers have been available for a long time. Mainly these users are fully or partially blind and have there computers connected up to a screen reader (which reads out the text on the screen) or a ALVA which converts the text on the screen to a series of pins which can be read by brail users.
Here is a screenshot of the lynx browser in use, having used it to do an image search in google for 'cats'.
The search was carried out successfully! 1,420,000 results for cat images. Obviously these cannot be displayed on the text only browser, but shows that it is able to display any website, though obviously with some limitations!
Next I have gone onto playmonday.com, a lottery site, where we have been asked to try to get to the button 'play monday now'. Although once used to using tab/shift tab to move forwards and backwards between items on the screen it does become easy to navigate between a site, unfortunatly, it means pressing tab 16 times before you actually get to the button, taking a lot longer than it would for a none disabled user.
Once the button has been 'pressed' by hitting the enter key when the button is selected, the site then opens a new page, where tab must be used again to navigate to the game before pressing enter again to activate the control. Once the control is activated the direction keys can be used to move between the different numbered balls that can be selected. However, the game is not programmed in a way which supports the use of the keyboard successfully, often moving diagonally between balls instead of a simple up, down, left and right which would be expected.
This shows poor programming and an unsuccessful means of making a fully accessible website.
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